The second season of The Real Housewives of New York City is off and running, said Ginia Bellafante in The New York Times, and the show “continues to feel especially yucky.” Like other programs on Bravo, The Real Housewives of New York City (click here to watch a preview) “feels like a moldy leftover from the pre-Obama age; the currently fashionable values—humility, intelligence, restraint, style—are eclipsed by money-grubbing witlessness and big-carbon-footprint living.”

“I don’t know if I agree,” said Jennifer Barker-Benfield in Cluster Flock. “Bravo is savvy enough to know that its audience likes to watch—and judge—the freaks in their freak show,” while also “feeling a tinge of jealousy that so much money is being wasted by people with no taste.” It’s easy to have “a love/hate relationship” with these “train wrecks”—it’s a “guilty pleasure,” and “I can’t stop watching.”

You’re not alone, said Heidi Patalano in Metro.us. “Like it or not, Bravo’s Real Housewives series is loved by a healthy percentage of the American populace. Sure, it’s superficial. Yes, it absolutely glorifies consumerism.” But here’s an idea: If those things don’t bother you, keep watching The Real Housewives of New York City; if not, change the channel.